Flavius Orestes

Flavius Orestes (430-28 August 476) was a Roman general of Pannonian ancestry who was briefly in control of the Western Roman Empire from 475 to 476.

Biography
Flavius Orestes was born to a Roman aristocratic family in Pannonia in 430, and, after Pannonia was ceded to Attila the Hun, Orestes joined Attila's court. He rose to be his secretary in 449 and 452, and he was twice sent to Constantinople to serve as an envoy to Theodosius II. In 475, he was appointed magister militum by Julius Nepos,  but, on 28 August 475, Orestes and his foederati took control of the government in Ravenna. Julius Nepos fled to Dalmatia without a fight, and he set up his own semi-autonomous state. Orestes then elevated his own son to the rank of Augustus, and his son became known as "Romulus Augustulus". Orestes was not recognized as emperor by the Byzantine Empire, but he was able to use the mints of southern Gaul and northern and central Italia to pay for barbarian mercenaries to support him in his struggle against Julius Nepos. However, he denied the barbarian mercenaries' requests for lands in Italy on which they could settle, so their leader, the Heruli general Odoacer, rebelled against the Western Roman Empire. The barbarians destroyed the city of Pavia, and Orestes was captured after a skirmish near Piacenza and was swiftly executed. Not long after, Odoacer went on to capture Ravenna and depose Romulus Augustulus, ending the Western Empire.